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I figured it would be handy to have one thread that has all the most frequently asked questions, as well as solutions to the most common issues people have encountered with this game. For troubleshooting issues, please skip straight to the Troubleshooting section below.

If you did not receive an answer to your question, please send us an email at Support [at] Frozenbyte [dot] com with your question or a detailed description of your problem, if you are having one. For troubleshooting issues, please also tell us your operating system and other system specifications.

Shadowgrounds: Survivor tells the story of three survivors who join forces with the last remaining human resistance in the heated battle against the ongoing alien onslaught. The acclaimed atmosphere and gameplay mechanics of the original Shadowgrounds make a triumphant return armed with a new feature set! The game supports local co-op for up to four people on the same computer.

Mac System RequirementsOS: Mac OS X 10.6.5 or better - Unfortunately OS X 10.9 NOT supportedProcessor: Intel MacMemory: 1 GB RAMHard Disk Space: 1GBVideo Card: : OpenGL 2.0 compatible video card with 256 MB shared or dedicated RAM (ATI or NVIDIA)*DirectX®: 9.0Additional: Keyboard+mouse or Keyboard+trackpad*Please be advised that the game does not run on Intel graphics solutions (such as Macbooks from 2006-2008 and the new MacBook Pro 13" models from 2011). The game does run on most Macs from 2009 onwards that have a distinct graphics chip (such as those with NVIDIA GeForce 9400M but graphics details need to be turned down for smooth gameplay).

FAQ

WHY IS THE GAME SO DARK?You can change the Gamma setting if the picture is too dark or bright for your taste. Please note that Shadowgrounds: Survivor has been designed to be somewhat dark. It is recommended that you play in dim conditions and leave the Gamma setting rather low.

IS THERE A MANUAL AVAILABLE?Yes, the full game manual can be found by opening Steam and selecting the My Games tab. Locate Shadowgrounds: Survivor, right click then select View Player Manual.

The manual is also available from the Shadowgrounds Survivor game page.

Please read the game’s ReadMe file for last minute documentation that may not be available in this manual.

SHOULD I USE THE SURVIVOR LAUNCHER TO START THE GAME?Yes. This allows you to change many technical options including screen resolution, graphic detail settings and other important options. Some options are divided into sub menus that let you tweak individual settings in more detail.

Some settings will influence the game’s performance and speed.

ARE THE CONTROLS CONFIGURABLE?You can reconfigure the default control settings to fit your gameplay preferences. From the Main Menu, select Options to access the keyboard and mouse configuration settings.

CAN I ADJUST/CHANGE THE CAMERA?Free camera (on by default) shows the character in a more isometric perspective, allowing you to see much more of your surroundings. The Free Camera mode also allows you to shoot in any direction, and rotate the camera by moving your mouse cursor to the edge of the screen.

Having Free Camera enabled allows you to lock the Y-axis of the camera, adjust mouse spring and camera speed.

Free camera can be turned off locking it to the character, if you prefer playing in that style.

WHAT IS CO-OP?Shadowgrounds Survivor can be played by up to 4 players in co-op mode on the same computer. Both the campaign and the Survival mode are available in co-op.

Co-op play in Shadowgrounds: Survivor is only possible using the same computer. Unfortunately, there is no online co-op and no LAN co-op.

DOES CO-OP SUPPORT MULTIPLE KEYBOARDS AND MICE?Yes. Players can use gamepads or multiple keyboards and mice. To enable this, check the Physics / Misc tab of the Launcher and tick on the "Use multiple input devices" option. After this you can use up to four USB keyboards and/or mice in co-op.

CAN I USE A CONSOLE GAMEPAD TO PLAY CO-OP?Shadowgrounds: Survivor has been tested to work with most gamepads that are recognized by the operating system (including both console and PC gamepads), and also with console gamepads used via an adapter.

WHAT IS SURVIVAL MODE?Survival missions pit you against an ever-growing wave of aliens that are all out to get you. You can select your character and weaponry at the beginning and use upgrades as usual but the play area is small and the aliens just keep on coming. Try to survive as long as possible. When you die, your score will be calculated based on the survival time and the number of aliens killed. Good scores get to the high score list!

WHERE CAN I FIND MORE INFO ABOUT THE MOD TOOLS?Shadowgrounds Survivor features extensive mod tools. These can be accessed from the Launcher. Main features of the mod tools include easy-to-use and versatile block sets for creating buildings, easy mission export to game, and lots of new content.

For more information on the mod tools and to see upcoming mods (or list your own!) check out the official wiki.

TROUBLESHOOTING

WHY IS MY GAME NOT STARTING?

The most common reason for this is that you are either missing PhysX drivers or having some other issue with them. PhysX is a physics library made by Nvidia, which Shadowgrounds: Survivor needs. PhysX will work with all graphics cards, even AMD/ATi.

Please restart your computer after installing these. You can also try to verify the game cache through Steam by right clicking Shadowgrounds: Survivor on your Steam Library, selecting Properties, choosing the Local Files tab and clicking "verify integrity of..".

If the above does not help, please email us at Support [at] Frozenbyte [dot] com with a detailed description of your issue and remember to tell us your system specifications. We will do our best to help!

THE GAME CRASHES WHEN LOADING A MISSIONUnfortunately, there is a known bug which we have never been able track down and fix. This does not happen to a lot of users, at least often, but it is nasty, considering the game's save system. We apologize for the inconvenience, and would like to offer a few workarounds. Note that you can also use both of the following methods.

Method 1Follow these steps:

1. Take note of the mission when it crashes (you can do this pre-emptively too, but I would not recommend this as most users will not have this issue).2. Check your profile's last savegame by going to Steam\SteamApps\common\Shadowgrounds Survivor\Profiles\[your profile]\Save\ and see the last save_xx.dhs file's number there.3. Download the next one from this link and place it in the directory.4. Try and see if the crash happens again. If you do not feel like playing the mission again, you can skip it by opening the console with F8 and writing the following (case sensitive): setMissionSuccessCounter 1

These savegames include basic weapons and ammo so they can be used to continue the game too, if you do not want to replay the earlier level again.

Method 2There is a script file that tries to create the savegame before the next mission starts loading.

1. Click here to download the .zip-file.2. Unzip the file in the Shadowgrounds: Survivor game folder. This should create a savefile for the next mission at the end of each mission.

I CAN'T PLAY THE GAME ON OS XUnfortunately, Shadowgrounds: Survivor does not support OS X 10.9 versions. However, players using OS X 10.9 could still try the following workaround which usually works. This workaround unfortunately doesn't seem to work on OS X 10.10.

Open Terminal application and run the next command (replace USERNAME with your own Mac OS username):

WHY IS THE GAME RUNNING REALLY SLOW ON MY COMPUTERYou can try to use lower settings. Enabling "Disappearing corpses" and deselecting "Distortion" options might also help. If your FPS rate drops while playing, you could try visiting the operating system desktop once by pressing alt-tab (not by exiting the game) and then pressing alt-tab again to switch back to the game.

I took the liberty of editing this based on a post at Steam's old forums wrote by Jeff from Meridian4.